What’s going on here!

What exactly is science fiction? We all know what the purists say: many of the greatest and most entertaining science fiction films ever made simply do not qualify.

Okay, so the science is lousy or non-existent. The situations are absurd. Nearly human robots shouldn't be making mechanical clunking and grinding noises when they think and spaceships shouldn't scream and whine in a vacuum. Two guys can't design a rocket for the moon and that mad scientist obviously doesn't know the basics of modern biology!

But we all know they're fun.

And in the end, isn't that what matters?

So grab the popcorn, settle back in the big, comfy easy chair and enjoy. After all, it has to be good...

But, Wait! There Will Be More!

Month: July 2017

Let’s get this straight: The original Invaders from Mars (1953) was not a great movie. William Cameron Menzies made it on a tiny budget and it shows. But it does something that Tobe Hooper and a big budget couldn’t do. It seems hard to imagine now, but Tobe Hooper was once considered a promising young director. His […]

This one, of course, was made to cash in on the wave of over the top shark movies started by Sharknado. Yeah, yeah, these are spiders (mostly) but the idea of the super-competent hero taking on the menace that is terrorizing an entire city is pretty much the same. Oh, and it was also made […]

It seems that those Mill Valley Fifty movie sets always feel the need to throw at least a few half-way decent films in with all the trash. That includes such interesting efforts as Primal Impulse (although in a horribly cropped print!); Peter Jackson’s splatter comedy debut, Bad Taste; the Indie classic, The Brother from Another Planet; Prey; The Manster; […]

Connections, connections… I’d stumbled across a reference to the Hong Kong action film, The Legend of Wisely (Wai Si-Lei chuen kei) because someone said it had the same basic plot as Franco Nero’s Top Line — but had been done better. However, when I looked it up, I learned it was one of a number of movies […]

As close as I can figure out, the original German title for this film translates as “The Nude and Satan.” Which you have to admit is a pretty solid exploitation film title, except for the minor fact that there aren’t any nudes in this film. Okay, there is a stripper, but we only see her […]

If you’d asked me which Toho monster movie I thought I would never see, I would probably have replied Jû jin yuki otoko (or, more probably, Half Human, as the original Japanese name is much harder to remember!). That might seem strange when we’re talking about one of Ishirô Honda’s monster epics — even if the monsters […]

Here we have one of those great Fifties stereotypes: the world famous genius scientist and doctor, immensely respected in his profession, acclaimed as one of the greatest experts of his age; a sober, dedicated man trying to find new ways to save the lives of his patients; a deeply ethical and responsible researcher who puts […]